It was great meeting with so many of you at parent/teacher conferences last week. Thank you so much for all of the work you do behind the scenes to support your child. If you have any lingering questions, please don't hesitate to send me an email or note.

While those two 12:45pm dismissal days made our schedule a little bit tight last week, we still got quite a lot accomplished. Here's what we've been working on in the classroom:

Reading : We wrapped up learning about nonfiction conventions by talking about the table on contents, index, and glossary. Then, we spent a couple of days looking at the tables of contents in nonfiction books to figure out what sort of information would (and wouldn't) be in each chapter. Now that we're done learning about the basics of nonfiction conventions in nonfiction texts, we're going to apply that knowledge by learning about how to use nonfiction texts for research purposes.

Author Study : Tomie DePaola is our new author study. He has written many books, and we certainly won't read them all, but they are great read alouds for first graders. They work especially well for us, as we're learning about other cultures this month. Last week we read a few of his Strega Nona books.

Writing : Last week, we spent time carefully going through our writing pieces to get them ready for publishing. We learned about the importance of using description and creating strong endings. We also worked with a partner to make sure that others would be able to understand what we've written. Finally, we got a checklist to make sure that our writing had all of the hallmarks of 'easy to read writing' (i.e. periods, capital letters, spaces between words, etc).

Math : Last week we extended our knowledge about money and time by learning about quarters and digital clocks. Now that the students have learned about all of the major coins, you can have your child practice his/her skills by counting change that you get from a cashier.

While we learned about counting by fives around the face of a clock to figure out the minutes, this is not a skill that is expected to be secure in first grade. Telling time to the hour and half-hour are the only clock skills that are expected to be secure by the end of the year. However, it can't hurt to review telling time to the minute with your child at home!

Phonics : Last week we spent time focusing on a few digraphs - sh, th, ch, and wh.